


The Price for Eternity

by madneto



Series: Vampires Are Nerds [2]
Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Charles Is a Big Dorkface, Charles Xavier has a Ph.D in Adorable, Erik Has Feelings, Fluff and Crack, Honestly Charles What Are You Thinking, M/M, Smitten Erik
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-06-07
Packaged: 2018-07-12 23:52:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,617
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7129478
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madneto/pseuds/madneto
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Erik and Charles are relaxing in the park when Erik decides to ask Charles a question that has long been on his mind, re: vampires. The answer is unexpected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Price for Eternity

“You know, I can practically hear you thinking,” Charles says, and when Erik tilts his head and looks from the spot on their picnic blanket he’s been staring at for the past five minutes up at Charles’ face, he sees Charles is already studying him. The fingers in Erik’s hair continue to massage at his scalp gently, almost coaxingly. Charles smiles down and him, where his head rests in Charles’ lap.

“Are you going to tell me or make me wait?” Charles asks, his smile growing a few teeth. “I have all of eternity, you know.”

Erik rolls his eyes. Charles tips his head back and laughs at the branches of the tree they’re sitting underneath, entirely too pleased with himself. If Erik had known how awful the jokes were going to get when he first found out Charles was a vampire… well, he still would have continued dating him. But the point remains; he might have appreciated some cosmic warning.

Still, it’s rather a good thing Charles feels comfortable enough to joke about it with him now. In the first few weeks or so after Erik found out, Charles had been entirely too difficult to convince that Erik _wasn’t_ completely freaked out by the situation, that he _knew_ Charles wouldn’t suddenly decide to make him a midnight snack. Erik wouldn’t pretend like it was a situation he’d ever thought he’d be in. Seeing the actual blood bags in Charles’ fridge had been unnerving at first. His own small stash of orange juice and Babybel cheese and salad mix had looked unbearably odd next to them.

But the secret had gotten out almost three months ago, and since then, he and Charles have fallen into a comfortable routine, seeing each other every day, even if it’s just for five minutes since Charles still refuses to buy a cell phone and Erik doesn’t think he could stand going twenty-four hours without knowing what Charles is thinking. Nowadays Erik finds himself fighting back the words, “I love you” when they part, worried somehow he’ll jinx it. Charles is over a hundred years old; their courtship probably feels like it’s been mere days – hours even, maybe – comparatively, and in a weird paradox, it’s _Erik_ that’s unbearably frightened of scaring Charles away.

Charles looks back down and him and Erik frowns, unsure. “I have a question but I’m not sure if you’ll think it’s gauche,” he says at last. There’s no use trying to avoid the subject now Charles has caught the scent; he’s right after all, he can wait for forever. He’s had far more practice at being patient than Erik has.

“I’m sure I’ve heard worse,” Charles says. Also true. Erik pauses, then opens his mouth.

“When you were changed… did it hurt?” he asks.

Charles nods, still carding his fingers through Erik’s hair. “Yes,” he replies. “The bite stung at first. What was worse was the thirst. That burned. Why do you ask?”

Erik shrugs one shoulder, up and down. “Vampire literature. It seems like all they can talk about half the time is how much it hurts to change.”

“Mmm,” Charles hums in agreement. “Yes. Makes it much more dramatic, I suppose. But I knew what I was getting into; it wasn’t surprising for me in the least.”

“Because you’d read books?”

“No,” Charles answers. “Because Antonio told me all about it before he did it.”

Erik freezes, not quite sure he’s heard correctly. “What?”

Suddenly, Charles’ expression turns sheepish. A flush begins to spread across his cheek, and he looks away, stroking his fingers across the shell of Erik’s ear as if that could distract him.

“Yes, Antonio was very straightforward about it all. A complete gentleman about the whole thing,” he says, his voice too high to be natural anymore.

Erik sits up, Charles’ hands falling away to flop uselessly in his lap, and squints across at Charles accusatorially. Charles is still turned away, refusing to look at him, so he scoots across to Charles’ other side and dips his head down to catch his eye. Reluctantly, Charles looks up, his gaze strangely guilty.

“Who the hell is Antonio?” Erik deadpans.

“The vampire who changed me, isn’t that obvious?” Charles asks in an evident attempt to divert Erik’s attention, but it doesn’t work.

“He _told_ you he was going to do it?”

Charles blush deepens, and he chews his lip, an unfairly becoming sight that Erik knows is only achieved through his literally supernatural good looks. “Actually,” Charles says quietly, “I asked him to.”

A sick feeling rises up in the pit of Erik’s stomach. He’d asked him. Charles had wanted to become a vampire, had wanted this life, and there’s no way he’d wanted it for some kind of deranged power play. Charles refuses to have victims nowadays, and try as he might in his darkest hours, Erik can’t believe that that stems from some horrible memories of past murderous rampages. He simply can’t see that in Charles.

So the only other solution must be love. Charles must have been in love with this Antonio person. He’d even called him a complete gentleman about the whole thing, like an experienced lover guiding his virgin partner with tender hands. Perhaps Charles still sees him sometimes; perhaps he’s still in love. Perhaps Erik is just a little fling for him, a bit of fun while he pines over absent Antonio. Erik thinks of the weeks they’ve spent together, of the feeling of Charles curled against him in the early morning hours just as he’s dozed off while Erik has come awake, of the soft smile Erik can feel against his lips when Charles kisses him in greeting, of the relaxed fondness that radiates from Charles as they quietly ruminate over the chessboard together. His face falls, and he feels sicker for thinking even for a moment that Charles could be pretending about any of it.

Confusion etches itself into Charles’ expression, and he sits up straighter again, leaning closer to Erik, obviously catching on to the torrent of thought running through Erik’s head. He reaches out seemingly unthinkingly and rests his hand on Erik’s knee.

“Erik?” He sounds concerned.

“You loved him?” Erik says, unable to help the way it turns into a hopeful question.

“Antonio?” Charles asks. He frowns and shakes his head. “No. No. It wasn’t like that at all, Erik. We were friends; he was at the university with me. That’s how we met.”

Confusion sets in again. “But you asked him to change you,” Erik says at last. “I don’t understand.”

Charles’ expression turns pained for a moment, and he searches Erik’s face, obviously trying to think of how to explain. Finally he rolls his eyes exasperatedly and sighs.

“You’re going to laugh at me,” he mutters, thumb worrying at the denim covering Erik’s knee. He takes a deep breath and looks up. “But I suppose that’s better than going on letting you think whatever you’re thinking. Antonio didn’t tell me he was a vampire; I figured it out for myself. And when I did, I asked him to change me because…” He winces but still holds Erik’s gaze. “Because I wanted… to go to school forever.”

Of all of the things that could have come out of Charles’ mouth, Erik had not expected that one. He feels his jaw drop, his mouth hanging slightly open as he takes it all in. Charles is back to chewing his lip nervously again, supernaturally white teeth against supernaturally red skin. The sun is setting, and in the orange light, somehow he looks even more beautiful than normal. Erik so rarely gets to see Charles in the light of the sun.

“Well…” Erik manages at last. “That makes… a lot more sense, actually.”

Charles smiles tentatively. “You think so?”

“I mean, for you,” Erik clarifies, but he’s starting to smile now, too. “For the rest of the world, not so much. To go to school forever? Really, Charles?”

“I like school!” Charles replies, scandalized. “I told you I have three PhDs. And it was the nineteenth century! We’d just learned about electromagnetism. If I hadn’t’ve changed I would have missed the Theory of Evolution, germ theory, radioactivity. Computers! I would have missed computers, Erik.”

“You don’t even like computers,” Erik points out.

“Yes, but I would have missed them,” Charles replies.

Grinning widely, and unable and unwilling to stop himself, Erik closes the distance between them and presses a gentle, affectionate kiss to Charles’ lips. He pulls back minutely.

“That’s just one of the reasons I love you, I suppose,” he admits, almost cross-eyed from staring down at Charles.

Charles grins up at him, eyes even brighter than usual, and he snakes his hand up Erik’s arm, tugging him a little closer.

“I love you, too,” he says, before tipping his head and kissing Erik again more deeply this time.

One of Erik’s hands finds its way to Charles’ hair, and just like that, the rest of eternity spools out in front of him: years and years, decades and decades of evenings at the park, of early mornings watching the sun rise as they lie tangled together, of watching period dramas while Charles points out every anachronistic phrase or set piece or costume design. All other worldly delights pale in comparison as Erik turns them over in his mind, carefully considering. Charles may not have turned for love, but in this moment, Erik knows he will. That is, if Charles will have him. And as he feels Charles’ hand trailing gently up and down his arm, his lips quirking against Erik’s as they kiss, he finds himself feeling more and more certain that Charles will.

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, I feel Charles in this respect. I am as nerdy as the average vampire (which is to say very, very nerdy).


End file.
